The Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) says it is targetting to gain full control of the Matabeleland region after this year’s elections, reported the Southern Eye.
Speaking at a campaign rally at Nketa Hall in Bulawayo over the weekend, the MRP president said Mthwakazi is not a tribe but a nation. He said:
This is part of what makes us different from ZAPU and other political parties which have been formed in Matabeleland.
We don’t seek to be countrywide like ZANU PF which calls itself Zimbabwe this and Zimbabwe that. In truth, we are only focusing on Matabeleland.
Our confinement within the Mthwakazi territory has led some people to think that we are a merely regional, tribal party.
If we were tribal, then all parties are tribal because they draw their membership from tribes.
Mthwakazi is a nation that harmoniously brings together a multiplicity of tribes, 13 of them.
Parties like ZANU PF paint themselves as national, but they are the ones that are tribal.
If ZANU PF was not tribal as it claims, why did it target Ndebele and all Mthwakazi people during Gukurahundi?
Why were the Shona people who were residents in Matabeleland and Midlands spared by the Fifth Brigade?
Why were ZAPU supporters of Shona origin in Mashonaland West, Manicaland and other Mashonaland areas which were ZAPU strongholds spared from the killings?
Moyo said Zimbabwe’s governance system is designed to favour the Shona people and disadvantage Ndebeles and other tribes based in Matabeleland. He said:
The system works only in favour of Mashonaland people. Mthwakazi people have to travel to Harare just for minor issues. Everything is dealt with in Harare, why?
Are there no government offices in Bulawayo, Gwanda, Filabusi, Binga, Hwange, Beitbridge, Tsholotsho, Matobo, Plumtree, Nkayi, Lupane, Gwelo (Gweru) and in other towns and cities?
Centralisation is one of the mechanisms by which Mthwakazi people are harassed.
MRP has been described as both secessionist and restorationist, seeking to restore the Mthwakazi kingdom.
According to Moyo, the Mthwakazi kingdom is made up of Aba-Thwa, San, Asians , Chewa , Nyanja, coloureds, BaKalanga, Karanga of Mthwakazi , Nambya , Nguni , Shangwe , Dhombe Sotho, Tonga , Tswana, BaVenda, BaLemba, BaSankwe , BaHlengwe, White African and Xhosa tribes.
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